# Cashiers: would it kill you to be friendly to a customer? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631 "2013-04-25T00:00:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/21 "2013-04-25T03:59:28Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Gee, do you think that this could be a cause and effect sort of thing? Because I’ve noticed this too. > > If you treat people like cogs in a machine, then most people seem to react by acting like cogs in a machine. Any attempt at having a personality seems to be frowned upon in those places. I can’t be the only one who chooses to shop at places where employees are happier and better informed, places like Trader Joe’s, or Whole Foods? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/22 "2013-04-25T04:00:19Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Give me honest apathy over false bonhomie any day. That’s my view. When I run across a smiling, friendly employee it doesn’t make me feel good; it makes me envision them being told _“smile at the customers, or you’re fired!”_ I recall a news story about a woman who worked for Safeway being fired because she was in too much pain to force a smile for example. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/23 "2013-04-25T04:11:28Z")
That’s my attitude too. If I find myself dealing with an employee spouting fake happy phrases s/he is forced to memorize, it makes me sadder than if they are just sullen. Take Taco Bell, the food comes out of a caulking gun for Christ’s sake, the only thing sadder than eating or working there is the guy in the paper hat and polyester shirt being forced to tell me to have a “Dorito-tastic day!” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/24 "2013-04-25T04:51:27Z")
Personally, I don’t care about smiles, or bonhomie, or cheerful phrases. I don’t need that stuff. What I do expect is attentiveness and efficiency - for workers to listen to my questions and answer them clearly, and for them to work in a fast and efficient manner. If they do that, I’ll be out of their hair as quickly as possible, and we can both go on with our lives. I couldn’t care less if they smile when they do it. Incidentally, slow customers annoy even more than slow cashiers. \*They \*have no excuse. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/25 "2013-04-25T05:17:41Z")
Here’s what pisses me off most about some cashiers. I believe that from the time I put my purchases on their counter to the time I get my change and bagged merchandise, they should refrain from having conversations with their cow-orkers (except for a price check), their cell phone, and any friends who might be hanging around. I can live without conversation, especially if there are a lot of people waiting behind me. Oh, and cashiers should cut friendly, post-transaction conversations short when there are people waiting in line. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/26 "2013-04-25T05:41:07Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Here’s what pisses me off most about some cashiers. I believe that from the time I put my purchases on their counter to the time I get my change and bagged merchandise, they should refrain from having conversations with their cow-orkers (except for a price check), their cell phone, and any friends who might be hanging around. I can live without conversation, especially if there are a lot of people waiting behind me. Oh, and cashiers should cut friendly, post-transaction conversations short when there are people waiting in line. And I came in to this thread to post the exact same thing…but was beaten to the punch by \<-------\> (that much). 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/27 "2013-04-25T06:44:57Z")
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to steal your thunder. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/28 "2013-04-25T07:52:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Personally, I don’t care about smiles, or bonhomie, or cheerful phrases. I don’t need that stuff. What I do expect is attentiveness and efficiency - for workers to listen to my questions and answer them clearly, and for them to work in a fast and efficient manner. If they do that, I’ll be out of their hair as quickly as possible, and we can both go on with our lives. I couldn’t care less if they smile when they do it. Agreed. False friendliness actually skeeves me more than a sullen attitude, which I barely notice or care about. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/29 "2013-04-25T11:09:52Z")
All I can say is thank god for self check lanes. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/30 "2013-04-25T11:31:03Z")
Damn! Where do y’all live that everybody is an asshole? Most folks are friendly here in OK, being a shit head is kind of an aberration. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/31 "2013-04-25T11:34:04Z")
I use self checkout lanes wherever they are offered, and pretty much ignore the cashiers who try to be perky. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/32 "2013-04-25T12:02:56Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Agreed. False friendliness actually skeeves me more than a sullen attitude, which I barely notice or care about. I don’t think you can be sullen and efficient at the same time. You can be _surly_, which is a bit more proactive. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/33 "2013-04-25T12:23:22Z")
Was she wearing the proper amount of flair? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/34 "2013-04-25T12:24:43Z")
Am I the only one who doesn’t experience this? I mean, I might get one once in a while but it’s certainly not a common occurrence. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/35 "2013-04-25T12:41:27Z")
It depends where you shop. Go to CVS, or Duane Reade or Pathmark, or KMart, and your presence is regarded as an inconvenience to the staff. Go to Trader Joe’s, Costco, a well run Mom n Pop, and you get workers who are well treated enough that they don’t feel like they’re being abused the entire time they are on the floor, so they have a decent attitude. It’s that race to the floor that WalMart and other’s are pushing, covering the same work with fewer people and still paying them shit wages and lousy/no benefits. It’s the sort of job where, if someone came up to them in the middle of their shift and offered them $.25/hr more they’d drop their badge on the floor and walk out. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/36 "2013-04-25T12:42:14Z")
What **Alessan** said. We divide our time between homes in the N burbs of Chicago, and a smallish town in IN. The local store near Chicago is the “cranky” Jewel, and the one over here is the “friendly” Jewel. Really skeevs my wife. Me, not as much, tho I do note that shopping at the friendly Jewel can improve my mood, more than the cranky Jewel detracts from it. A lot of public service impresses me as more pleasant and competent in IN, than around Chicago. I don’t know if this will take things down the road towards shitfest territory, but I suspect one thing contributing to the improved customer service is the cultural homogeneity. Yes, this part of Indiana is a whitebread wasteland. But I can imagine it does make simple transactions more efficient if possible language barriers are removed. As a customer I enjoy not having to work hard to understand simple communications with staff. And I can imagine as a customer service worker it would not improve my attitude to have difficulty understanding my customers. So that is the tradeoff I perceive. Sure, I live in a monochromatic, conservative, religious, intolerant community. But the store and government clerks are mostly pleasant and efficient, so that pretty much evens things out, right? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/37 "2013-04-25T12:51:26Z")
It’s not enough that people are working dead end jobs in a socially stagnant society with huge income disparities, we want them to be happy about it. Smile, only forty more years of this, unless of course you get a serious illness, in which case you are totally fucked. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/38 "2013-04-25T12:52:18Z")
Put your money where your mouth is. There are some grocery stores around here whose employees always seem to be sullen/inattentive/mumbling. There are also a few where the employees are none of those things, and are friendly in just a normal, human way. I go out of my way to shop at these stores. If you are in a service position, and you can’t manage to interface with customers in a manner that approximates pleasant, courteous human-to-human communication, then you are bad at your job. > [@madmonk28](#): > > It’s not enough that people are working dead end jobs in a socially stagnant society with huge income disparities, we want them to be happy about it. Smile, only forty more years of this, unless of course you get a serious illness, in which case you are totally fucked. Unfortunately, and often without them realizing because no one has told them, their shitty attitude at work may very well be the reason why they cannot get out of their dead end job. You don’t wait to get the better job to show you are mature and capable enough to handle it. ---
**Author:** ![nogwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nogwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nogwart)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/39 "2013-04-25T12:59:00Z")
I can definitely count myself amongst those who DO care if a cashier is friendly. I haven’t lived in many different geographical areas, but of those in which I have lived, I have most certainly noticed a difference: Texas (Houston area) - I experienced a huge majority of cashiers whom I considered very friendly; smiles, eye-contact, small-talk, etc. And I liked the good feeling it gave me that (even if false) my presence/business was appreciated. Michigan (Flint/Detroit areas) - Almost the complete opposite of TX. Nearly all cashiers are uncommunicative in the extreme, never smile or make eye contact, recitation of company-scripted questions/sales-pitches with no eye-contact or interest. I STILL remember an interraction with one around Christmas time over 8 years ago: Cashier after completion of transaction: [complete silence] Me, walking away: Merry Christmas! Cashier: [complete silence] Me after about 5-8 seconds of silence, trying to make light of her rudeness: Oh, “Bah, Humbug!”, huh? (chuckle, chuckle) Cashier: It’s too early. Me: Wow! Oklahoma (Tulsa area) - Considering TX a 10 and MI a 0, OK was probably around 6 or 7 in my experiences. More often than not, most cashiers were friendly, but you did get an occasional grump. Florida (Orlando & Daytona areas) - Slightly below OK, probably a solid 5. About half the time friendly, half grumpsters. Of course this is outside of major attractions (Disney, etc.) wherein it is required that employees are almost creepy/scary in their over-friendliness. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631/40 "2013-04-25T13:23:08Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > If you are in a service position, and you can’t manage to interface with customers in a manner that approximates pleasant, courteous human-to-human communication, then you are bad at your job. > Unfortunately, and often without them realizing because no one has told them, their shitty attitude at work may very well be the reason why they cannot get out of their dead end job. You don’t wait to get the better job to show you are mature and capable enough to handle it. I agree with this. Customer facing positions require courtesy and a good attitude. If that isn’t you, work behind the counter, in the stockroom, or find an assembly line. If you are inclined towards cynicism or open contempt for those who ask for help, consider a career in tech support or billing/collections. J/K (not really) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-would-it-kill-you-to-be-friendly-to-a-customer/656631.md?page=3)